‘No possible way’ to make COVID vaccine mandatory: MP
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THERE is "no possible way" any Australian government could force someone to take the COVID vaccine.
That's the belief of Dawson MP George Christensen, who has clarified the Federal Government's stance.
It comes after the government secured a major deal to produce a vaccine locally, if trials succeed.
It has signed an agreement with AstraZeneca to secure Oxford University's COVID-19 vaccine.
If it is successful, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said Australia would have a target of 95 per cent vaccination, to account for people with health conditions that prevented them being vaccinated.
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"I would expect it to be as mandatory as you could possibly make it," Mr Morrison told Melbourne radio station 3AW.
"There are always exemptions for any vaccine on medical grounds, but that should be the only basis."
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Mr Christensen told the Daily Mercury this did not mean people would be forced to have the vaccine.
"There is no possible way any Australian government could force someone to take a vaccine if they don't want to take it, so while the vaccine may be as mandatory as the government can make it won't actually be mandatory in the true sense of the word," he said.
The Dawson MP referenced vaccines on his Facebook page last week while responding to Chief Health Officer Jeannette Young's message to Queenslanders that "it's unlikely we will return to life as we knew it".
"The only difference to 'life as we knew it' should be the ongoing presence of the COVID-19 virus in the world and perhaps the several vaccines that people should be able to choose as to whether they receive or not," Mr Christensen wrote.
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